The Privilege of Learning How To Read

My almost six year old granddaughter is learning her sight words. She had all the words on something that resembles a key chain and she carries them around. The words are grouped and color coded.

“The blue ones are really hard, Nana,” she said to me. So we worked on the orange ones first.

It’s amazing how quickly she learns them.

I work at a learning center for folks who want to get their GED. I’ve met lots of nice people there but one of my all time favorites is a lady I’ll refer to as Francis.  Francis was one of the most soft spoken ladies I’ve ever met. She came in one day and I could hardly hear a word she said. Finally I realized she wasn’t there to get her GED, she was there because she wanted to learn to read.

Francis was in her early fifties and had managed to hide her secret from everyone….everyone but herself.

We started with sight words, much like my granddaughter is doing now, and over a period of several months Francis learned to read.

I’m sure that when my granddaughter brings her first book home from school and reads it to me I will be proud, but watching Francis read her first book gave me a thrill I’ll never forget.

Every day I pick up books or magazines and read something. I take for-granted a basic skill I learned a long time ago.

I can’t imagine what it would be like not to be able to read the stupid bumper stickers on the rear of the car in front of me as I sit at a stop light.

Like this one…

Or the billboard I pass on the highway.

Reading (most of the time) is a blessing and I’m so thankful to my mother for giving me her love of reading, to my teachers who encouraged me and to God for allowing me the opportunities I have had. I know there are still countries where girls are not encouraged to get an education, where war is going on and school just isn’t possible.

So the next time you are reading something stop and count your blessings. Like the gospel song says, “It will surprise you what the Lord hath done!”